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Tails 4.24 is out

Changes and updates

  • Update Tor Browser to 11.0.

  • Make the confirmation dialog of Tails Installer more scary when reinstalling a USB stick that has a Persistent Storage. (#18301)

Improvements to the Tor Connection assistant

  • Improve the time zone selection interface. (#18514)

  • Improve the explanation when fixing the clock. (#18572)

  • Explain better how to type a bridge. (#18597)

  • Remove mention to local networks when opening the Unsafe Browser. (#18600)

Fixed problems

  • Avoid high CPU usage when getting download progress info in Tails Upgrader. (#18632)

For more details, read our changelog.

Known issues

  • The Unsafe Browser has display problems, but still works to sign in to a network using a captive portal.

See the list of long-standing issues.

Get Tails 4.24

To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage

To install Tails on a new USB stick

Follow our installation instructions:

The Persistent Storage on the USB stick will be lost if you install instead of upgrading.

To download only

If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 4.24 directly:

What's coming up?

Tails 4.25 is scheduled for December 7.

Have a look at our roadmap to see where we are heading to.

Posted 2021-11-04 Tags:
Tails report for September, 2021

Releases

In September, we released 4.22 with updates for Tor Browser and Thunderbird, improvements to the Tor Connection Assistant, and several fixes.

Tails 4.23 is scheduled for October 5.

Highlights of the month

  • We got several reports about folks being unable to download Tails images using Google Chrome, Chromium or Chromium-based browsers, and fixed it. (#18616)

  • We also received reports about a new problem with the Additional Software feature (Splitting of clearsigned file errors), and we're working on it! (#18620)

  • We improved our documentation on Connecting to the Tor network and added a new nice diagram.

    A Tor connection goes through 3 relays with the last one establishing the actual connection to the final destination

  • The documentation style guide is now the single place where we describe how we write our documentation.

Metrics

  • Tails has been started more than 668 017 times this month. This makes 22 267 boots a day on average.

How do we know this?

Posted 2021-10-13
Tails 4.23 is out

Changes and updates

  • Update Tor Browser to 10.5.8.

Known issues

None specific to this release.

See the list of long-standing issues.

Get Tails 4.23

To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage

To install Tails on a new USB stick

Follow our installation instructions:

The Persistent Storage on the USB stick will be lost if you install instead of upgrading.

To download only

If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 4.23 directly:

What's coming up?

Tails 4.24 is scheduled for November 2.

Have a look at our roadmap to see where we are heading to.

Posted 2021-10-06 Tags:
Tails 4.22 is out

In Tails 4.22, we focused on solving the most important issues in the Tor Connection assistant to make it more robust and easier to use.

Changes and updates

Included software and hardware support

  • Update Tor Browser to 10.5.6.

  • Update Thunderbird to 78.13.

  • Update the AMD graphics firmware to 20210818. This should improve the support for some AMD graphics cards.

Tor Connection

  • Change the custom bridge interface to only allow entering 1 bridge. (#18550)

    People had troubles knowing how to enter their custom bridges when the widget was a textarea and only the first bridge is used anyway.

  • Allow saving 1 custom bridge in the Persistent Storage. (#5461)

  • Allow fixing the clock manually when connecting to Tor using bridges fails. (#15548)

    This helps people East from London connect to Tor using obfs4 bridges and makes connecting to Tor more robust in general.

  • Reduce the timeout that determines whether we can connect to Tor at all from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. Increase the timeout to start Tor entirely from 120 seconds to 600 seconds. (#18501).

    Tor Connection now fails quicker when it's impossible to connect to Tor, while being more robust on slow Internet connections.

  • Allow trying again to connect to Tor from the error screen. (#18539)

Unsafe Browser

  • Stop restarting Tor when exiting the Unsafe Browser. (#18562)

  • Only mention the Persistent Storage in the Unsafe Browser warning when there is already a Persistent Storage. (#18551)

Others

  • Make sure that automatic upgrades are downloaded from a working mirror. (#15755)

  • Add Russian to the offline documentation included in Tails.

Fixed problems

Tor Connection

  • Fix connecting to Tor using the default bridges. (#18462)

  • Fix connecting to Tor when the Wi-Fi settings are saved in the Persistent Storage. (#18532)

  • Stop trying to connect to Tor in the background when Tor Connection reaches the error screen. (#18740)

For more details, read our changelog.

Known issues

None specific to this release.

See the list of long-standing issues.

Get Tails 4.22

To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage

To install Tails on a new USB stick

Follow our installation instructions:

The Persistent Storage on the USB stick will be lost if you install instead of upgrading.

To download only

If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 4.22 directly:

What's coming up?

Tails 4.23 is scheduled for October 5.

Have a look at our roadmap to see where we are heading to.

Posted 2021-09-07 Tags:
Tails report for August, 2021

Releases

In august, we released 4.22~rc1 and 4.22. Having a release candidate helped us gather feedback from users to build a more solid 4.22. Enjoy it!

Tails 4.23 is scheduled for October 5.

Highlights of the month

  • We migrated our XMPP chat rooms to disroot.org. You do not need to have a disroot.org account to join us on the talk chat, any XMPP account is fine. XMPP chat room is only used for users' mutual help, and is not always monitored by our help desk. Write an email if you want to talk with Tails' help desk.

  • The Foundations Team met for a sprint, which resulted in many bugs being fixed and features being added. You can taste some of them in 4.22, but some of them haven't make it for the current release:

    • Improving the time zone selection user interface (#18514).

    • Redesigning Persistent Storage setting (#17803).

  • Our joint proposal with Tor to DRL has been accepted. This will help us do more user research and implement UX improvements.

  • We added Word Solver as a sponsor.

  • We are improving the speed of our Continous Integration infrastructure. This is not immediately visible to users, but helps making Tails' development more enjoyable and sustainable.

Metrics

  • Tails has been started more than 675,177 times this month. This makes 22,505 boots a day on average.

How do we know this?

Posted 2021-09-07
Call for testing 4.22~rc1

Contribute to Tails by testing our release candidate for Tails 4.22 by the end of August!

What's new in 4.22~rc1?

Tails 4.22, scheduled for release on September 7, will allow users to manually set their correct time zone and clock. This helps users to work around a long-standing issue of Tails not being able to connect to Tor when obfs4 bridges are being used and the computer has a hardware clock that is set to a time zone that is east of UTC. See #15548.

Also, Tails 4.22 will allow users to save bridges to Persistent Storage so that the bridges do not need to be reentered every time Tails is restarted.

What's new since 4.21?

  • Update Thunderbird to 78.13

  • Tor Connection assistant will stop trying to connect to Tor when the error screen is displayed.

  • Offline documentation includes the Russian language translation.

For more details, read our changelog.

Get Tails 4.22~rc1

To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage

If you are running Tails 4.19 or later, you can upgrade like this:

  1. Start Tails and set an administration password.

  2. Connect to the network and make sure Tor is connected successfully.

  3. Run this command in a Terminal:

    echo TAILS_CHANNEL=\"alpha\" | sudo tee -a /etc/os-release && \
     tails-upgrade-frontend-wrapper

    Enter the administration password when asked for the "password for amnesia".

  4. After the upgrade is applied, restart Tails and choose Applications ▸ Tails ▸ About Tails to verify that you are running Tails 4.22~rc1.

Download Tails 4.22~rc1

Download and install Tails 4.22~rc1 as usually.

All the data on this USB stick will be lost. Don't install Tails 4.22~rc1 on any USB stick that already has a Persistent Storage, upgrade instead.

Direct download

BitTorrent download

What to test in Tails 4.22~rc1?

We particularly would like to know if Tails successfully connects to Tor using bridges when the correct time zone and clock are set from within Tor Connection assistant.

Also, we want to make sure that bridges are properly saved to and restored from Persistent Storage when the Tor Bridges feature is enabled.

Tell us if anything is unclear, confusing, or not working as you would expect.

Please, send your feedback to tails-testers@boum.org (public mailing list).

Known issues in 4.22~rc1

None specific to this release.

Happy testing!

Posted 2021-08-19 Tags:
Tails 4.21 is out

Changes and updates

  • Update Tor Browser to 10.5.4.

  • Update Thunderbird to 78.12

Fixed problems

  • Prevent Tails Installer from deleting a Persistent Storage when doing a manual upgrade and choosing Cancel in the confirmation dialog. (#18494)

For more details, read our changelog.

Known issues

None specific to this release.

See the list of long-standing issues.

Get Tails 4.21

To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage

  • Automatic upgrades are available from Tails 4.19 or later to 4.21.

  • If you cannot do an automatic upgrade or if Tails fails to start after an automatic upgrade, please try to do a manual upgrade.

To install Tails on a new USB stick

Follow our installation instructions:

The Persistent Storage on the USB stick will be lost if you install instead of upgrading.

To download only

If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 4.21 directly:

What's coming up?

Tails 4.22 is scheduled for September 7.

Have a look at our roadmap to see where we are heading to.

Posted 2021-08-10 Tags:
Tails 4.20 is out

Tor Connection assistant

Tails 4.20 completely changes how to connect to the Tor network from Tails.

After connecting to a local network, a Tor Connection assistant helps you connect to the Tor network.

This new assistant is most useful for users who are at high risk of physical surveillance, under heavy network censorship, or on a poor Internet connection:

  • It protects better the users who need to go unnoticed if using Tor could look suspicious to someone who monitors their Internet connection (parental control, abusive partner, school or work network, etc.).

  • It allows people who need to connect to Tor using bridges to configure them without having to change the default configuration in the Welcome Screen.

  • It helps first-time users understand how to connect to a local Wi-Fi network.

  • It provides feedback while connecting to Tor and helps troubleshoot network problems.

We know that this assistant is still far from being perfect, even if we have been working on this assistant since February. If anything is unclear, confusing, or not working as you would expect, please send your feedback to tails-dev@boum.org (public mailing list).

This first release of the Tor Connection assistant is only a first step. We will add more improvements to it in the coming months to:

  • Save Tor bridges to the Persistent Storage (#5461)

  • Help detect when Wi-Fi is not working (#14534)

  • Detect if you have to sign in to the local network using a captive portal (#5785)

  • Synchronize the clock to make it easier to use Tor bridges in Asia (#15548)

  • Make it easier to learn about new Tor bridges (#18219, #15331)

Changes and updates

  • Update OnionShare from 1.3.2 to 2.2.

    This major update adds a feature to host a website accessible from a Tor onion service.

  • Update KeePassXC from 2.5.4 to 2.6.2.

    This major update comes with a redesign of the interface.

  • Update Tor Browser to 10.5.2.

  • Update Thunderbird to 78.11.0.

  • Update Tor to 0.4.5.9.

  • Update the Linux kernel to 5.10.46. This should improve the support for newer hardware (graphics, Wi-Fi, and so on).

  • Rename MAC address spoofing as MAC address anonymization in the Welcome Screen.

Fixed problems

Automatic upgrades

  • Made the download of upgrades and the handling of errors more robust. (#18162)

  • Display an error message when failing to check for available upgrades. (#18238)

Tails Installer

  • Made the display of the Reinstall button more robust. (#18300)

  • Make the Install and Upgrade unavailable after a USB stick is removed. (#18346)

For more details, read our changelog.

Known issues

  • Automatic upgrades are broken from Tails 4.14 and earlier.

    To upgrade from Tails 4.14 or earlier, you can either:

    • Do a manual upgrade.

    • Fix the automatic upgrade from a terminal. To do so:

      1. Start Tails and set up an administration password.

      2. In a terminal, execute the following command:

        torsocks curl --silent https://tails.boum.org/isrg-root-x1-cross-signed.pem \
| sudo tee --append /usr/local/etc/ssl/certs/tails.boum.org-CA.pem \
&& systemctl --user restart tails-upgrade-frontend

        This command is a single command that wraps across several lines. Copy and paste the entire block at once and make sure that it executes as a single command.

      3. Approximately 30 seconds later, you should be prompted to upgrade to the latest version of Tails. If no prompt appears, you might already be running the latest version of Tails.

See the list of long-standing issues.

Get Tails 4.20

To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage

  • Automatic upgrades are broken from Tails 4.14 and earlier. See the known issue above.

  • Automatic upgrades are available from Tails 4.14 or later to 4.20.

    You can reduce the size of the download of future automatic upgrades by doing a manual upgrade to the latest version.

  • If you cannot do an automatic upgrade or if Tails fails to start after an automatic upgrade, please try to do a manual upgrade.

To install Tails on a new USB stick

Follow our installation instructions:

The Persistent Storage on the USB stick will be lost if you install instead of upgrading.

To download only

If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 4.20 directly:

What's coming up?

Tails 4.21 is scheduled for August 10.

Have a look at our roadmap to see where we are heading to.

Posted 2021-07-13 Tags:
Tails report for June, 2021

Highlights

Metrics

  • Tails has been started more than 629 659 times this month. This makes 20 989 boots a day on average.

How do we know this?

Posted 2021-07-12
Call for testing 4.20~rc1

Contribute to Tails by testing our release candidate for Tails 4.20!

We are very excited about it and cannot wait to hear your feedback :)

What's new in 4.20~rc1?

Tails 4.20, scheduled for July 13, will completely change how to connect to the Tor network from Tails. We would like as many people as possible to test this release candidate to be able to fix as many problems as possible before we release 4.20 to all users.

Over the years, we have identified many issues in how to connect to the Tor network from Tails, thanks to your feedback. With this release candidate, we are trying to solve the most important and pressing of these issues:

  • The lack of feeback while connecting to the Tor network.

  • The option to use Tor bridges has to be turned on in the Welcome Screen and cannot be changed afterwards.

  • The lack of default Tor bridges.

  • The previous configuration screen for Tor bridges wasn't accessible to people who use the screen reader.

  • The lack of guidance when Tails is not connected to a local network yet.

What's new since 4.19~rc1?

  • The Tor Connection experience has had several improvements and bugfixes since 4.19~rc1.

  • OnionShare was upgraded to 2.2, which features significant changes compared to version 1.3.2 that we used to ship.

For more details, read our changelog.

Get Tails 4.20~rc1

To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your persistent storage

If you are running Tails 4.2 or later, you can upgrade like this:

  1. Start Tails and set an administration password.

  2. Connect to the network and make sure Tor is connected successfully.

  3. If you are running Tails 4.19~rc1 you must run this command in a Terminal or you will experience issues:

    torsocks curl --silent https://tails.boum.org/isrg-root-x1-cross-signed.pem \
| sudo tee --append /usr/local/etc/ssl/certs/tails.boum.org-CA.pem

    Enter the administration password when asked for the "password for amnesia".

  4. Run this command in a Terminal:

    echo TAILS_CHANNEL=\"alpha\" | sudo tee -a /etc/os-release && \
     tails-upgrade-frontend-wrapper

    Enter the administration password when asked for the "password for amnesia".

  5. After the upgrade is applied, restart Tails and choose Applications ▸ Tails ▸ About Tails to verify that you are running Tails 4.20~rc1.

Download Tails 4.20~rc1

Download and install Tails 4.20~rc1 as usually.

All the data on this USB stick will be lost. Don't install Tails 4.20~rc1 on any USB stick that already has a Persistent Storage, upgrade instead.

Direct download

BitTorrent download

What to test in Tails 4.20~rc1?

We think Tails 4.20~rc1 is in pretty good shape, but it still has a few rough edges. We need your help to identify as many new problems as possible!

We are particularly interested in any issues you experience with time syncing, especially when reported using WhisperBack. Also, we really appreciate testing of diverse and rare network configurations:

  • When connecting to Tor without bridges fails.

  • When Tails is not connected to a local network yet.

  • When disconnecting from a Wi-Fi network with Internet connectivity and then reconnecting to a different Wi-Fi network without Internet connectivity.

  • When disconnecting from Wi-Fi network that don't require Tor bridges and the reconnecting to different Wi-Fi network that requires Tor bridges.

  • When connecting to a Tor bridge that works at first but then stops working.

  • When connecting to the Internet using a proxy.

Tell us if anything is unclear, confusing, or not working as you would expect.

Please, send your feedback to tails-testers@boum.org (public mailing list).

If you are comfortable with the command line, check our hacking tips. They contain firewall rules that can be used to block access to the Tor network without bridges or simulate a broken bridge.

Known issues in 4.20~rc1

  • Korean and Polish localization is not available. We will attempt to fix this in the final Tailss 4.20 release.

What's coming next?

Tails 4.20 will be the first release of a series of improvements to connect to Tor. Next, we will work on:

  • Saving Tor bridges to the Persistent Storage (#5461)
  • Detecting better when the computer has no supported Wi-Fi hardware (#14534)
  • Detecting captive portals (#5785)
  • Helping people fixing their clock when failing to connect to obfs4 bridges (#15548)

The learn more about our plans, read our blueprint on network connection.

Happy testing!

Posted 2021-07-02 Tags:
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